HCL Technologies has signed a wide-ranging deal with financial services software vendor Misys that will see the Indian outsourcer make further inroads into Australia's banking sector.

Misys, whose Australian customers include the ANZ, NAB, CBA, Westpac, St George and the Treasury Corporations of NSW and Victoria, will use HCL's resources to aid the upgrade of many of its global banking customers to new versions of its software.

HCL has global accounts including Deutsche Bank, Cisco, AMD, Boeing and Microsoft, and its Australian application development and business process outsourcing operation count the likes of Westpac, St George Bank and Fonterra among its customers.

The two companies will collaborate on developing new versions of Misys banking products, creating an upgrade centre in India to encourage the take-up of Misys products by existing customers, and go to market together to win new accounts.

Announcing the five-year agreement, HCL chairman Shiv Nadar and Misys chief executive Mike Lawrie said the deal will help both companies cope with the explosive growth of financial services products required by the global market -- particularly by those banks opening up in developing countries.

"We are under great pressure to deliver products as fast as the financial services industry requires them," said Lawrie. "As more and more financial services packages come to market, the banks need software to manage the trades and transactions."

Nadar said that something like 200 million new bank accounts are expected to be opened in India alone over the next five years, as continued economic growth sees more Indians entering the country's burgeoning middle class.

The India Overseas bank and Metro Bank in the Philippines were announced as launch customers for the partnership.

Brett Winterford travelled to New Delhi as a guest of HCL Technologies.